Live from Staples- Lakers vs. Spurs

9:12- Kobe drives, and gets hacked by Oberto.  That's two on Fabricio, who has to head to the bench.  Kurt Thomas comes in for him.  He makes one of two, and the deficit is at four.

8:40- Great play by Kobe as the double comes at him on the right baseline, he finds Lamar coming across on the other side for the pass and the easy dunk.  That's something the Lakers have done extremely well over the last few games- when the double comes to Kobe, they make them pay by giving him an outlet and putting the ball in a good position to score.

7:50- Kobe gets caught in no man's land, leaving Bowen wide open for a three.  24 can't let that happen.  The guy does one thing offensively, and you know that if he's left open, he'll make it.  Guearding Bowen isn't a tough defensive assignment in the sense that he's a dynamic scorer or that sort of thing, but he does require you to stay home on him.  Can't play center field and expect to get away with it.

6:13- Spurs up 12-9.

5:39- Parker starts way beyond the three point line, and slices to the hoop for an easy layup, prompting a timeout from PJ.  No screens were set, though Thomas came out to offer, but eventually there was just enough space for Parker to exploit.  14-9 SAS.

Ime Udoka in for the Spurs, replacing Finley.

3:50- Bad break for the Lakers, who give up a bunch of offensive boards to the Spurs, the last off what was a clear push of Gasol from Duncan to gain space.  Ball goes back out, eventually back to Duncan, who has the easy dunk.

3:15- Great steal from Gasol, who is able to take the ball in and dunk it, showing some handle and quickness as well.  Of course, when you're seven feet tall, it doesn't take too many dribbles to get to the basket.  17 up.

1:03- Nice two man game with LO and Kobe.  Odom came out to set the screen, but when the double came hard on Kobe slipped it, and Kobe passed him the ball quickly over the top of the double.  Odom had an easy path to the hoop, and was able to make the and one, drawing the contact on Thomas.

22-19 LAL. 

:54.1- Double T's on Udoka and Sasha. 

END OF THE FIRST- LAL 25, SAS 23.  Good start for the Lakers, who are doing a good job limiting the Spurs from the floor (40%), and are taking care of the ball (three TOs, one of which came on the first possession of the game).  A controlled effort, and one they need to keep up. 

AK with the second.

SECOND QUARTER

10:30 - An easy dunk blown by Ronny.  He won't get too many chances laid out on a plate better than that one.  But a minute later, he redeems himself with a 19-footer.

8:57 - Ronny fouls Duncan, putting him at the line for the and one layup.  Freebie goes down, putting the Spurs back up by a bucket.  A bucket immediately matched when Turiaf cans a 17-footer.

7:40 - Despite the hands of Kobe and Turiaf in his face, Damon Stoudemire hits a fall away jumper from 15 feet.  And when I say "fall away," I mean, dude literally fell on his ass after letting fly.  I fon't know how he managed to get that one to stroke nylon, but kudos to Mighty Mouse. 

7:25 - Ronny continually works down low against Duncan, bacing down for further position, then hits a cutting LO with a dump off pass right under the bucket.

6:10 - With the shot clock winding down, Pau puts up one in the paint against TD, who swats the attempt right into LO's mitts.  With two ticks remaining, Odom's got no choice left but hoisting from 20 feet.  Money.  As they say, timing is everything.

5:10 - Pau creates a new Laker opportunity after blocking Duncan's shot and corralling the loose rock.  Unfortunately, the chance gets wiped away after Kobe picks up an offensive while driving and shuttling the ball to Luke for three.

4:02 - Kurt Thomas picks up his third foul.  That's a good break for the Lakers.  Oberto's also got a trio, so more pressure on Duncan to take either LO or Gasol without joining their ranks.  The Lakers should work to pick up at least TD's second before the half ends.

2:52 - Another missed dunk for the Lakers, this time by Gasol.  But Vlad Rad's there for the richochet, then finds Walton camped out behind the arc.  Money ball from disdtance.  The Laker lead is bumped up to six.

1:18 - Parker drives past Fish at the top of the circle, then negotiates Pau's presence in the paint with a dipsy doodle, scooping layup that originates with block hands on the rock.  I hate to see it, but really nice play.

32.4 - Tim Duncan's not the easiest guy to put a body on, but LO didn't provide nearly enough of a challenge, which allowed TD to snag Bowen's errant four footer and make right the wrong. 

11.5 - Working the Lakers' final possession with a full shot clock for the half, Kobe lets time wind down, and down, then finally darts towards the goal, slipping past a wall of defenders and knifing the layup through some daylight and into the basket.  But the Spurs answer layup for layup with Tony Parker, which concludes the opening 24 minutes with a 51-51 tie.  The San Antonio shooting percentage took a serious (41 to 52) jump during this frame, which canceled out the 43-50 increase experienced by the Lakers.  That same defensive awareness from the first quarter needs to come back into play again.  It will all begin with containing Tony Parker, who's doing too much scoring (18 points) and assisting (5) for everyone's good.  BK will be here to oversee whatever adjustments come in the third.      

THIRD QUARTER:

Lakers oepn up a quick three point lead, 56-53.  As always, the first few minutes of the quarter are important.  If the Lakers can get some space, and perhaps more importantly avoid going down a few, they'll be set up well for the fourth.

9:30- Still 56-53.

8:30- Great patience from the Lakers.  Kobe posts to Odom, who passes out, and Kobe feeds it back in.  LO backs his man down, then pops it out to Kobe, who passes up the shot deep in the clock and feeds a wide open Fish for the triple, which he buries.  Great use of the shot clock, and not settling for a shot while there was still a little more time to squeeze out oa better one. 

7:35- 59-55 LAL.

7:22- Great pass from Fish on the perimeter, falling away, to Gasol underneath for the easy dunk.  Another example of passing up an available shot for a better one.  Popovich calls a timeout.  Overall, the Lakers have come out in the quarter and shown a ton of patience.  They're playing the same controlled game, generally free of mistakes, and not giving the Spurs anything to feed their attack.  They're not getting bomb happy from distance, they're taking care of the ball, and they're getting it inside. 

The defense as a whole has been reasonably solid, too.

7:21- 61-55 LAL.

6:55- LO gets Udoka on his back in the post, backs him down, and makes the easy feed to Pau as the help comes.  Easy dunk.  Lakers up by eight.

5:40- Two straight threes from Derek Fisher help the Lakers push the lead out to nine, then after Kobe misses a three, Fish hits Radmanovic cutting down the lane for the dunk.  Fair to say this has been a productive frame for him.  70-59 LAL.

They force a 24 second clock violation on the next SA trip.  The intensity on the court, and in the building, is growing.  Momentum is definitely on LA's side right now.

2:56- Kobe fouls Bowen on the three attempt and there's a Lakers TO on the floor.  On the previous trip down, though, Kobe made a great feed to Gasol underneath, again, dishing as the help came on his drive to the open man.  The Lakers have clamped down on San Antonio in the third, holding them to 2-12 from the floor, while shooting 8-14 on the offensive end and picking up six dimes on the eight buckets.  It's worth noting as well that the Lakers have only one TO in the quarter. Put it all together, and it's easy to see where the nine point lead has come from.

Farmar and Walton in after the TO.

Bowen makes the first, misses the second, misses the third.  Lakers up 72-64.

1:10- Lakers up 76-64, with Duncan going to the line after drawing a foul on Gasol in the post.  Overall, the Lakers have done a great job on TD today, who is only 5-15 from the floor.  And of course, any time he's on the line, it's probably a good thing for the other team.

Duncan makes one of two.  lakers up by 11. 

END OF THE THIRD: Kobe caps off a killer Q3 with a triple at the buzzer off the long outlet from (I believe) Gasol off the rebound on the other end.  Overall, the Lakers take control of the game (up by 12, 79-67) by outscoring the Spurs 26-14- the 14 part is particularly good- shutting down San Antonio and taking excellent shots on the other end.  This was the sort of quarter they needed to gain the advantage, and that they didn't get Friday night against the Hornets. 
Big Q for Fish, who had nine points, and Kobe, who had six.

AK with the fourth.

FOURTH QUARTER

The Lakers kick off the frame with some great team D, forcing San Antonio to continually swing the ball around in a unfufilled attempt to find a good shot.  With a second left, Finely puts one up with Walton's hand blocking his vision.  No go.  Fantastic work on five purple and golders' (Turiaf, Walton, LO, Sasha, Farmar) part.

10:57 - More lockdown in effect, this time in the form of a Turiaf swat of Might Mouse's layup.

9:26 - Not as effective a defensive display this time, as Finley blows past Farmar in fairly quick fashion, then floats the layup in before Ronny can react to challenge.

7:32 - Farmar goes coast to coast (and behind the back) after retreiving Parker's missed six footer, eventually using his off arm to create a little more space and put the reverse layup home.    

6:40 - Good work underneath the bucket by Walton, who keeps at it while trying to snag first Turiaf then his own miss.  The activity eventually draws Bowen into a loose boul foul and creates a new Laker possession where LO eventually slams home another Walton miss. 

5:09 - Farmar sets up Turiaf for an emphatic dunk that pushes the Laker lead to 24, Pop to call time out, the crowd to go absolutely beserk and Kobe to get up off the bench and meet Turiaf for an giddy  shoulder bump.  Whole team's pretty damn fired up, as well they should be.

Interesting note:  This LO-Sasha-Turiaf-Farmar-Walton fivesome is the same one that blew the doors open against the Clips on Thursday and finally put them away.  While it was certainly an achievement on that night, it was also against a decidedly less competitive squad.  Doing it against the Spurs, however, raises a few more eyebrows.

With just over two minutes to play, Mom emails me.  Her message?  "That's it.  Game over. Love Mom."  Remember, you heard it here first.

1:11 - Ira Newble hits his first trey ball as a Laker.  Similar to the Kennedy assination, everyone will recall where they were when they heard the news.

Demarr Johnson's three ball pushes the Spur points to 85, which doesn't do them a whole heck of a lot of good, since the Lakers have 106 of their own.  Great defensive second half for the Lakers, who held San Antonio to a paltry 32 points during that pair of frames.  From Tony Parker to Tim Duncan to "name you Spur," weren't nobody on the opposition able to get much going.  On the flip side, a very balanced Laker attack (six players in double figures) doubled their first half tally, took exceptional care of the ball and killed the Spurs on the boards.  Ain't much to complain about.  More to come later.  Big win.  Thanks for being a part of it.